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arXiv:1008.2455

On the Necessary Conditions for the Validity of the Hohenberg-Kohn Theorem

Viktor Borisovich Bobrov, S. A. Trigger, G. J. F. van Heijst

Published Aug 14, 2010• 0 citations
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Abstract

It is shown that the Hohenberg-Kohn lemma and theorem are direct consequences of the statement that the ground state energy (or free energy) of a system of interacting particles in an external field is a unique functional of the potential of this field. This means that, if the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is valid, the nonuniform density in the equilibrium system and the external field potential are biunique functionals. In this case, the nonuniform density is intimately related to the inverse response function. On this basis, a regular procedure can be constructed for determining the density functional for the free energy or ground state energy.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1008.2455

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It is shown that the Hohenberg-Kohn lemma and theorem are direct consequences of the statement that the ground state energy (or free energy) of a system of interacting particles in an external field is a unique functional of the potential of this field. This means that, if the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is valid, the nonuniform density in the equilibrium system and the external field potential are biunique functionals. In this case, the nonuniform density is intimately related to the inverse response function. On this basis, a regular procedure can be constructed for determining the density functional for the free energy or ground state energy.
The analysis in this paper shows that the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is the constellation of two statements: (i) the mathematically rigorous Hohenberg-Kohn lemma, which demonstrates that the same ground-state density cannot correspond to two different potentials of an external field, and (ii) the hypothesis of the existence of the universal density functional. Based on the obtained explicit expression for the nonrel-ativistic particle energy in a local external field, we prove that the energy of the system of more than two non-interacting electrons cannot be a functional of the inhomogeneous density. This result is generalized to the system of interacting electrons. It means that the Hohenberg-Kohn lemma cannot provide justification of the universal density functional for fermions. At the same time, statements of the density functional theory remain valid when considering any number of noninteracting ground-state bosons due to the Bose condensation effect. In the framework of the density matrix functional theory, the hypothesis of the existence of the universal density matrix functional corresponds to the cases of noninteracting particles and to interaction in the Hartree-Fock approximation.
Based on the Schrodinger equation, exact expressions for the non-relativistic particle energy in the local external field and the external field potential are derived as inhomogeneous density functionals. On this basis, it is shown that, when considering more than two noninteracting electrons, the energy of such a system cannot be an inhomogeneous density functional. The result is extended for the system of interacting electrons. This means that the Hohenberg-Kohn lemma which assert that in the ground state to each inhomogeneous density corresponds only one potential of the external field cannot be a justification of the existence of the universal density functional in the general case. At the same time, statements of the density functional theory remain valid when considering any number of noninteracting ground-state bosons due to the Bose condensation effect.
Based on the Schrodinger equation, exact expressions for the non-relativistic particle energy in the local external field and the external field potential are derived as inhomogeneous density functionals. On this basis, it is shown that, when considering more than two noninteracting electrons, the energy of such a system cannot be an inhomogeneous density functional. This means that the Hohenberg-Kohn lemma which assert that in the ground state to each inhomogeneous density corresponds only one potential of the external field cannot be a justification of the existence of the universal density functional in the general case. At the same time, statements of the density functional theory remain valid when considering any number of noninteracting ground-state bosons due to the Bose condensation effect.
The Hohenberg-Kohn theorem and the Kohn-Sham equations, which are at the basis of the density-functional theory, are reformulated in terms of a particular many-body density, which is translational and Galilean invariant and therefore is relevant for self-bound systems. In a similar way that there is a unique relation between the one-body density and the external potential that gives rise to it, we demonstrate that there is a unique relation between that particular many-body density and a definite many-body potential. The energy is then a functional of this density, and its minimization leads to the ground-state energy of the system. As a proof of principle, the analogous of the Kohn-Sham equation is solved in the specific case of 4He^{4}\mathrm{He}4He atomic clusters, to put in evidence the advantages of this formulation in terms of physical insights.
We show that for Schrödinger operators in a connected domain, the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem holds within the class of Laplace form-bounded external potentials if and only if the single-particle density is strictly positive quasi-everywhere. Furthermore, we show that this condition is satisfied for non-interacting Schrödinger operators whenever a ground-state exists. Consequently, we establish the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem for non-interacting systems, and thereby the uniqueness of the Kohn-Sham potential, within the maximal class of Laplace form-bounded distributions. The main ingredient to establish these results is a characterization of regular states, whose proof relies on tools from classical potential theory. Moreover, this characterization reveals that, in the continuum setting, the fundamental mechanism underlying the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem is the (quasi)-unique continuation of the density rather than of the many-body wavefunction.
Abstract In this chapter, the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem of DFT is formulated and proved. This theorem says that there is a unique one-to-one correspondence between potentials and ground-state densities in electronic many-body systems. The original proof of Hohenberg and Kohn is presented and discussed, which proceeds in two steps: first, the mapping from potentials to wave functions is shown to be unique, followed by the mapping from wave functions to densities. Two corollaries of the theorem are then discussed: the variational principle, whereby the exact ground-state energy can be found by variation of the energy functional, and then the universality of parts of this energy functional. The so-called constrained search formalism is also briefly discussed.